Editorial: By all means, let's count those American tanker jobs

THE FORERUNNER Foundation’s pledge to come up with an accurate count of American jobs created by the Air Force refueling tanker contract should provide some needed verification of facts that might otherwise be lost in the politically charged competition.

The foundation is a nonprofit policy organization based in Washington, D.C., that has focused on modernization of transportation safety and security. Its managing director, Jerry Cox, is a former procurement policy counsel in the U.S. Senate.

The Forerunner Foundation appreciates, unlike Boeing Co. and its supporters, that Mobile is a part of the United States of America and that if EADS wins the potentially $40 billion contract, more than 1,000 new jobs will be created here as the Airbus tanker is assembled. Boeing consistently has tried to portray Airbus as the "foreign" competition stealing U.S. jobs.

During the last bidding competition between the Northrop Grumman-EADS partnership and Boeing, estimates of U.S. jobs created varied widely. Boeing, notes Forerunner, is already putting out estimates of jobs created in Kansas and Ohio in addition to its Washington state plant, if it wins the contract.

The "Tanker Job Counter," according to a Forerunner news release, will gather the numbers and locations of new American jobs each side will create if it wins the contract, add them up and analyze them.

In the Forerunner news release, Mr. Cox provides an accurate and succinct summary of what happened in 2008 when the Northrop Grumman partnership won the contract and then saw the Pentagon overturn the decision: "The Air Force was adamant in 2008 that the Airbus tanker better met the needs of American warfighters, but Boeing made it appear that all the Airbus jobs would be in France. The resulting Buy American uproar, not technical violations of federal procurement law, killed the Airbus contract."

We look forward to Forerunner’s findings, with the understanding that the tanker competition should still be about getting the best refueling tanker for the Air Force.